How I Spent My Zombie Vacation - Season 2 of The Walking Dead

All right - so the much hyped "The Walking Dead" season two finally aired. I also watched "The Talking Dead" and heard what some dudes (and creator Robert Kirkman) thought. I had some thoughts on the show as well. What are they? Glad you asked - although you may not be...

Overall, it was a typically good show. I loved the zombie herd, and how the living managed to escape unscathed (mostly) - especially Daryl's actions to save a guy he probably thought about killing himself. When the blood started to flow, I thought that was it for T-Dog, but he lives to run another day after spending some quality time up close and personal with a dead zombie.

I also loved the interaction between Dale and Andrea - It was clear something was up between them, and the show did a good job of getting it out in the open and moving on.

Now for the things I didn't particularly like. I thought the episode spent way too much time on the search for Sophia. Now, I'm not saying don't search - quite the opposite. But this is a TV show - cut to the chase, man. Some of the sequences that occurred during the search were interesting (gutting a zombie, the exploration of faith by different characters at the church), but as a whole...it dragged on a bit. And then they still hadn't concluded the search by the end of the show? This seems to me to be an unnecessary cliffhanger. There are plenty of other things going on to keep us coming back.

I was also not too wild about the scenes with Shane and Lori. Sure, there's reason for these two to be at odds with each other, but her pushing Shane to leave the group and Shane's nastiness to Carl didn't ring true to me. Of course, I've never been chased around by a world of zombies, so what do I know?

I just thought that if Shane had an issue with what went down, he ought to keep the discussions and nastiness between the adults. And how could Lori encourage Shane to leave the group and head off by himself? That just sounds like banishing him to die, as he'd be on his own and most likely become a lunchable for a pack of zombies, as he'd have nobody to help him or watch his back.

Finally, the scene with Shane, Rick and Carl in the woods. The setup was obvious - something was going to happen. I was wondering if the deer was going to attack Carl or something like that. I didn't expect Carl to get shot. And why, if Lori dislikes Shane as much as she does, and if she's not thrilled with how meanly Shane was treating Carl, did she let him go along?

But I did enjoy the episode, and am looking forward to the upcoming installments. This is easily one of the best shows around. But since I am actively interested in about 3 or 4 shows, I'm not really sure how much weight my endorsement would carry.

As for "The Talking Dead," I thought the best part was the behind the scenes stuff and the interview with creator Robert Kirkman (a comic book writer, not a graphic novelist, despite what they kept saying). The one takeaway that I got from the show was that Robert Kirkman reminded me a lot of Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid - in his appearance and mannerisms. Maybe that's just me.

They showed a clip of the next episode, but it was hard to put it into meaningful context. I'd wager to say that that clip didn't change anyone's mind as to whether or not they'd watch next week. The show is good enough to keep us coming back. It was also interesting to hear Andrew Lincoln speak in his real, british, voice. Quite a contrast to Rick's accent.

It's nice to watch a show that is able to give the viewers solid writing, solid acting, over the top gore, classic suspense and enough compelling characters and plot threads (without overdoing it) all in one show. It's really too bad there aren't more shows like this!

Given the success of the show, can a spin-off called "The Real Housezombies of Atlanta" be far off? I bet it would be at the top of many must see TV lists. Hell, I know I'd watch.